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Gun Violence and the Ten Plagues of Egypt


For a long time I have felt that we are in a situation akin to the ten plagues of Egypt when it comes to gun violence in America.  Incidentally, my son and I are reading the Bible together and tonight we read Exodus 11.  God has commanded Moses and Aaron to go before Pharaoh and ask that the Israelites be set free.  God knows that Pharaoh will refuse because it is God Himself who hardens Pharaoh's heart.  But each time Pharaoh refuses, God conveys powers through Moses and Aaron to effect horrible plagues upon Egypt.  With each one Pharaoh momentarily says he will lets the Israelites go if only God will stop the plague.  But then he reneges on his promise and reverts to his hardened heart, just as God knows he will do.
 
"And there was a Cry in Egypt"
Arthur Hacker
 
But with the tenth, most punishing plague of all, God decrees that the firstborn son of all Egyptians will die.  It is only with this plague that Pharaoh finally allows the Israelites to leave with Moses and Aaron - he will change his mind later of course, but by then it will be too late.

To me each of these horrible mass shootings are like plagues, in which God is telling us to do something.  God is leaving it up to us.  I don't think He means to solve this problem for us.  If this is the country, the world we want to live in, I don't think God will stop it.  Of course He is saddened.  He loves all of us.  I am sure it breaks His heart that we are destroying each other.  He is not causing these plagues to happen.  But these plagues are a by-product of our sins.  Anger.  Rage.  Greed.  Desperate thirst for power and significance.  Selfishness and instant gratification.  Culminating with problems not being solved by non-violent means, but with lethal retribution, warped needs for revenge.
 
Will we get the message?  Or is this the society we have chosen?  A violent, depraved society, not unlike others in the world and those which have existed throughout history.  And more and more every day, we make the choice towards the latter.  When the answer is really so simple: we follow God.  Repent of these sins that invariably cause gun violence.  Replace hate with love.

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